To Kill A Mockingbird Coming Of Age Quotes

Jack Bowman
Honors English 9-1
Mrs. Rollins
March 9th 2023

In the coming-of-age novel “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee. The protagonist, Scout Finch, narrates the adventure of growing up in the “old town”(5) of Maycomb, Alabama. Throughout the novel, Scout and her older brother, Jem, experience the thrills and frights of visiting “The Radley Place.”(9) and learning more about the so-called “malevolent phantom”(9) Boo Radley, as well as the heart-wrenching court trail of the wrongly accused black man “Tom Robinson, a human being”(231). Scout and Jem’s father, “Atticus Finch”(4) teaches them about the rights and the wrongs of living during The Great Depression. Lee plants different details in their adventures and learning experiences

The conflict in question is the court trial of Tom Robinson. In the court trial a black man named Tom Robinson was accused of raping the “fragile-looking”(203) Mayella Ewell. Atticus Finch represents the wrongly accused Tom at the court trial. Even though Jem is convinced saying “we’ve won it…”(238), disappointingly the children of Atticus Finch watch him lose the trial in favor of the Ewells. Lee paints Atticus Finch as this perfectly moral man, on which his children rely constantly. The children think Atticus will win because he is such a good man, and they think his argument is overly convincing because he seems like a just and amazing being. These thoughts cause the children to become blind to the prejudice of Maycomb. Lee etches the idea that through Jem, this moral correctness applies to the people of Maycomb as well. When their father losses, the blindfold is lifted from their minds as they realize the town of Maycomb isn’t as friendly as they once thought. The children also see that their father isn’t as god-like and capable as they once saw, and how he as one man cannot stop Maycomb’s prejudice. Lee furnishes a loss of innocence using conflicts experienced by the

Lee uses the metaphors presented by Mrs.Dubose’s character to enact a loss of innocence. Mrs. Dubose was “vicious” (115) toward the Finch children every time they walked by her house. She would constantly blame them for performing misdeeds while “stationed on her porch”(116). During the time before the trail of Tom Robinson, Mrs. Dubose gives her opinion on Atticus Finch saying “You're no better than the [n-----] and trash he works for!” (117) These comments severely anger Jim. Lee plants a loss of innocence in Jem’s reaction to Mrs. Duboses heckles toward his father. In retaliation, he “cut the tops off of every camellia bush Mrs. Dubose owned.” (118). This retaliation Lee shows gives a large loss of innocence toward Jem. In Jem's view (like stated in the previous paragraph) his father is of moral perfection and therefore has never had any prejudice toward African Americans and has taught Jem always to respect them as equals. He has not seen Maycomb in its prejudice towards African Americans. Jem finds out that people don’t like his father and his actions because of his ties to those he represents. Jem’s actions are from a source of anger emitted by what he knows is wrong, because he is losing innocence he does not know how to deal with his anger from the Dubose's unkindness, so he takes it out on her “camellia buds”(119) and destroys them to release that anger. Atticus teaches the children they must